Nuno Espírito Santo and his Portuguese contingent at Wolverhampton Wanderers grabbed a point away to José Mourinho’s Manchester United. João Moutinho produced a sumptuous effort to give Mourinho more headaches. Also in England, Bernardo Silva grabbed another one for Manchester City, albeit with a little bit of fortune.
Ronaldo scored another goal for Juventus in their win at Frosinone. Elsewhere there were Portuguese goals scored in Scotland, Spain, Poland and France. Although Leonardo Jardim and Miguel Cardoso had difficult weekends with their sides in Ligue 1 there were victories for other Portuguese managers all around the world.
Mourinho unhappy with attitude
José Mourinho was critical of his Manchester United team’s attitude after their 1-1 draw at home to Wolves. Nuno Espírito Santo started 5 Portuguese players with Rui Patrício, Rúben Neves, João Moutinho, Hélder Costa, & Diogo Jota all in the side. Diogo Dalot didn’t feature in the United squad after his impressive debut against Young Boys in the Champions League on Wednesday evening with Mourinho resting the 19-year old.
Brazilian midfielder Fred opened the scoring at Old Trafford with a fantastic finish past Rui Patrício. Had Patrício not added another wonderful save to his show reel this season by denying Fred’s freekick shot just before half-time the result could have been very different.
João Moutinho’s fantastic 53rd minute strike with his left-foot earned Wolves a point. Espírito Santo said he was proud of his team’s performance: “It was a good game, two teams wanting to win, lots of chances and emotion. I thought it was a point deserved.”
Bernardo Silva may have got somewhat fortunate against Cardiff City when his flick on header from a corner put Manchester 2-0 up, but it was another excellent performance from the midfielder who added an assist to his goal. Marco Silva’s Everton suffered a 2-0 defeat away to Arsenal, amid more and more questions being asked of the Portuguese manager.
Elsewhere in England, Marco Matias scored for Sheffield Wednesday in their 2-1 victory against Aston Villa. Gil Dias and João Carvalho both started for Nottingham Forest in their victory over Rotherham.
Candeias adds to Rangers’ rout
In Scotland former Nacional man Daniel Candeias grabbed Rangers’ 5th goal in their 5-1 win over St. Johnstone as they leapfrogged Celtic this weekend.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s 81st minute goal put Juventus ahead late on in their tricky 2-0 win away to Frosinone. His left-foot finish is his 3rd goal in Italy for the Old Lady in a game that also saw João Cancelo used as a second half substitute.
There were goals galore in Spain when Sevilla thrashed Levante 6-2 away from home. Daniel Carriço got the Andalucían club’s second with a looping header and André Silva got back to scoring for his club with an easy finish. Gonçalo Guedes was a second half-substitute for Valencia in their goalless derby against Villarreal and Paulo Oliveira helped Eibar keep a clean sheet at home to Leganés.
Fonte brothers triumph
In the Fonte family in France Rui might be the forward but it was his brother José Fonte who got his first goal for his new club as both featured in Lille’s 2-1 win over Miguel Cardoso’s Nantes side. There were more Portuguese coaching woes in France too; Monaco’s poor start to the season continued as Leonardo Jardim’s side could only draw at home to Nimes. Jardim’s Monaco are now on a 6-game winless streak.
Renato Sanches got his first Bundesliga minutes for Bayern Munich this season after his performance against Benfica midweek. The midfielder only managed three minutes but things do seem to be improving for the youngster in Germany.
There’s plenty of Portuguese representation in Poland at the moment. The experienced Flávio Paixão provided an assist for Lechia Gdansk’s 3-3 draw at home to Zaglebie Lubin and former Guimarães man Cafú scored a brace for Legia Warszawa against Miedz Legnica.
In the rest of Europe, goalkeeper Beto had a lot of work to do in Turkey to help Götzepe win 2-1 away to a Trabzonspor team that featured João Pereira. There were three Portuguese players on the pitch as PAOK defeated AEK 2-0 in Greece. Hélder Lopes, André Simões and Vieirinha all featured but only the latter was on the winning side. In Cyprus former Leixões men André Teixeira and Leonardo Silva both featured for league leaders AEL Limassol.
Fonseca marches on
Finally, in Ukraine Paulo Fonseca’s Shakhtar Donetsk extended their lead to five points ahead of 2nd place Dynamo Kyiv with a comfortable 3-0 win at home to Chornomorets.
Outside of Europe, Pedro Caixinha’s management stint in Mexico is still going well. Despite Cruz Azul suffering their first league defeat during the week they were back to winning ways against Atlas to remain top of the Apertura in Mexico. Further afield, Vítor Pereira’s Shanghai SIPG still top the league in China.
by Richard Cole
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